Monday, January 2, 2017

A Craft Room Tour

Happy New Year, everyone! Ok, so my post is a little late, but I've been busy lately. But finally, FINALLY the holidays are over and I'm getting back into my daily routine! Do any of you miss your normal life when the holidays come around? Or am I just a huge introvert that likes to go off in a corner to craft?

I don't know what it is, though I suspect it's the plastic totes and shelves in the seasonal section of the stores, but this time of year I always start thinking about how to declutter my home. This year, I'm especially thinking about my craft supplies. I just have so much, and I don't have nearly enough room for all of it. Currently, my supplies are split between two rooms, my (very tiny) studio, and the corner of our multipurpose room.

I wish there was some way of getting it all into my studio, but it's far too small for that (I believe it's 8x12 feet). I often find myself looking at pictures of immaculate craft rooms on pinterest, drooling over all the shelves and peg boards and carefully stacked fabric. I know no one's craft room really looks like that, but there's still part of me that wishes I could have what I see in those pictures. Sigh!

In that spirit, I decided I'm going to show pictures of my very real, very messy craft room(s). This is for both of us. It helps me by getting an outside view and maybe getting some new ideas on how to organize everything, and it helps you by showing you that, yes, there are seriously messy craft rooms, you're not the only one.

So let's start with my studio. I believe it's 8x12. Our house is 100 years old, and the rooms are super small, but this one seems to really push the small boundaries. Somewhere in the 50s, the owners at the time added a garage onto the back of the house, with a large room on top. So now, my tiny studio is between the large above-garage room and the upstairs hallway. Weird? Absolutely. It's pretty useless as a bedroom now (if it wasn't before), but it's perfect for a studio!

Here's a picture of the whole thing, taken from one end.

And my cat Sunshine!

On the left are my ironing board/craft table with fabric and batting storage underneath, and next to that is my drafting table. On the right is a dresser with a bookshelf sitting on top of it that holds mostly scrapbooking and art supplies. Next is a filing cabinet that I use to organize my larger pieces of material. After that is a set of plastic drawers that have more art supplies. Next is a toy chest/window seat that has more material, and next to that (outside of the picture) is a book shelf. Here's everything in pictures.

The crafting table/ironing board:

It's technically attached to the wall and can be folded down, but I have lots of things stored under there at the moment! A tote full of leftover batting and fiber fill, a laundry basket that I use to take my projects around the house, two plastic filing boxes where I have big pieces of fabric stored, and a fabric box that has my photo setup neatly tucked away in it. I keep my iron plugged in all the time because the plug is hard to get to.

Next, my drafting table:

I love this drafting table. There's something wonderful about sitting up high on that chair and having all that space open to work on. I got in back when I was seriously into my art, but I mostly use it to journal and work on my craft designs now. I still store my prismacolor markers on it.

Speaking of art, here's a shelf along the side wall:

With my complete set of prismacolor colored pencils, two mannequins, and some spray fixative.

In the left corner is the dresser topped with a bookshelf:

That's a hand-me-down dresser and a $20 Walmart bookshelf. It mostly stores my scrapbooking stuff (something I don't do a lot of anymore), with a couple of shelves dedicated my my painting materials.

Next, the cute butter yellow filing cabinet:

I saw this idea online somewhere. I drape my large pieces of fabric over hanging files, then hang them in the filing cabinet. It's my favorite way to store fabric! It lets you see everything at a quick glance, plus it's pretty easy to get at without disturbing the other material.

I didn't take a picture of the plastic drawers or the window seat, but here's a picture of the big bookshelf:

On top is my collection of craft magazines (I have a lot!). Below that is my light box, a cool picture I painted, and my filled in journals (I'm an avid journaler). The next shelf is filled up with plastic shoe boxes, each with a different color of fabric scraps. This is a really useful way to store scraps, by the way. Very easy to see and to get to. The shelf below that has random boxes of sewing stuff; a box of lace, a project I'm working on, a box of precut fabric, and a box of stuff I need to organize. The two shelves on the bottom have my craft books and another big magazine holder.

On the right, you can see the door that leads into our multipurpose above-the-garage room, and that's where my other crafting things are! Here's an overview of everything.

It's especially messy. In case you couldn't tell, I didn't pick up before taking these pictures! What you see is what I live with, lol.

Ok, so on the left is a box full of my finished plastic canvas projects. I haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet, so for the moment, they're living in this box which is next to my computer desk (outside of the picture). In front of the box is a large wooden trunk I restored last summer. I should have taken a picture of that! It's wicked cool.

In the center, under the window, is my sewing table. I have three sewing machines! To the right of the sewing table are two sets of plastic drawers, and next to that is the closet where I keep my milk crates of yarn. Here's everything a little closer!

Hey, I found a picture of the trunk! This is it pictured in my (dirty) garage:

It currently houses bags of unopened quilt batting. I wish I had somewhere more central to show it off, but for not it lives in the corner of my craft space.

I didn't get a very good picture of my crafting table, but I did get pictures of my sewing machines!

Here is my Brother PQ1500SL:

It's currently sitting on the floor because the plastic drawers aren't sturdy enough to hold this bad boy. He's almost all metal and weighs about 35 pounds! It's seriously the best machine I've ever had, even though it's a straight stitch machine. I <3 it.

Next is my Pfaff Ambition Essential:

He's pretty new, so he's the one on the sewing table at the moment. I'm trying to get it all figured out. I used to have a Singer Curvy, but modern Singers aren't really that good, which is why I gave it to my niece and bought this one to replace it.

Now the reason I have two modern machines is because I like to have one for piecing, and one for quilting. The Pfaff is great at piecing, and it has a lot of really nifty stitches. The brother is a boss at quilting. And this way, I can switch out machines if I need to go between projects, instead of having to change all the settings.

That's not all of my machines though! I have one more, and this one I've had since I was a teenage. My mom bought this beauty at a yard sale when I was a teenager, and it's the machine I learned to sew on. My sewing table is actually the original cabinet to my 1949 Singer Model 15.

Usually I keep her tucked into the cabinet because she needs a lot of work these days. She needs a new belt, a new bobbin plate, and a new cord. I hope to have her up and running in the near future. Why would I bother, you ask? I dunno, I just love her. I love old machines. I think they're wonderful, and it would be a shame to leave her broken. Plus, I'd love to compare how she works next to my new machines!

Next to the sewing table are the two plastic drawers.

I like the storage, but I'm not happy with how flimsy these things are. I'd like to put my Brother machine up there, but at 35 pounds, it just crushes them. My number one goal for the new year is to replace at least one of those things with a sturdy chest of drawers.

Anyway, the one on the left has my patterns in the top drawer, my fat quarters in the middle drawer, and my fabric panels and sewing kits in the bottom. The one on the right has my little crafty bits in the top (like wiggle eyes and pompoms), my knitting needles and crochet hooks below that, two drawers of cotton yarn under that, and the bottom drawer is full of felt!

Last, but certainly not least, is my yarn:

This sits just inside my closet. Each crate has a different color family of yarn in it, which makes it easy to find what I'm looking for. It works pretty well, but I would like to upgrade this to something a little prettier someday.

So, did you enjoy the tour? Did you find yourself shrieking in horror at the tremendous messes? Yeah, me too. But I plan on working on getting it more organized this year! I would love to hear any ideas anyone has! Hopefully I'll post more pictures as I get things more together, and hey, maybe I'll even inspire someone else to get their stuff organized.

3 comments:

How fun! I am dying to upgrade to a bigger home so I can set up my craft room. For now, my stuff stays scattered and boxed up. In my last home though, I really liked using the Smart Carousel hanging shelf thing from Walmart (https://www.walmart.com/ip/Smart-Carousel-5-Shelf-Organizer/15579196) to put my yarn. I used the shoe parts for a different skein of yarn, and the middle shelves for plastic canvas and scraps, jumbo yarn skeins and some finished projects. Does take up a little room hanging, but then you have the space underneath.Thanks for the tour!AlexandraEyeLoveKnots.blogspot.com

Hey, cool idea, Alexandra! I would probably only need a couple of those to store all of my yarn. Hmmm.... now were to put them...

I usually find myself wishing for a bigger house when I look at the craft room pictures on Pinterest :( but then I remind myself that, if I ever did have a bigger house, I'd probably fill it so full that I would need an even bigger house, lol. In a way, it's kind of fun to try to organize the space I have!